An Emotional Greeting: The Emotion Mage's Entrance

The tattoo on her chest brought joy to her eyes as Blair stepped foot into the guild hall. It was fairly quiet... Not at all what she expected to see from a guild. Especially a guild as famous and heard of as Lamia Scale. She had arrived late last night, right before closing, and convinced some poor stranger to stay in late and let her get registration out of the way.

"So... This is what it feels like to be apart of a guild." The women spoke, a smile printed on her face, and an aura of joy and hope practically swarming around her body. "It's been awhile sense I was this happy." She muttered softly to herself, taking slow steps as she looked around the guild, it was amazing. The architecture of it all was beautiful, all appearing to be made out of marble. "How could someone have built this place... It's like a castle." She let out a sigh of disbelief as she began to step towards a chair. "I wonder if they are all off of jobs..." She spoke, brushing a strand of lilac hair back behind her ear, allowing for it to cover just her right eye instead of oddly covering her face.

The smile, however, did not fade. It remained planted on her face, appearing to be as unmovable as the marble walls of the guild hall. Sitting in the chair, she began to look over some paper work. Although she had technically joined the guild last night, she still had some things to fill out such as her residency information, current liabilities, "Criminal record?" She read, a bit shocked. "Shouldn't they find that stuff out before admitting people into the guild..." Letting out another sigh, she continued to smile and work her way through the paperwork, hoping for someone to come distract her from it.

Ren had been there late. He was always there for some reason, like he never had anything better to do. If he went home, he knew his landlord would be there to question why the walls wouldn't stop leaking water, and he didn't have time nor an actual explanation to clean it up. The only reason the landlord let him stay there was out of pity most of the time. Despite being almost 20, he was still about as insecure as a 13 year old. His attention was taken away from the wizard magazine he was reading when a girl with lilac hair walked in, and immediately covered his face. He had messed around with some local gang and they were constantly looking for him, another reason he wouldn't be in a rush to go home.

However, she said things about the guild and jobs, and Ren slowly put down the magazine to inspect. She did have a very noticeable outward appearance, but looking at her in more depth showed the highlights of her looks. It was unfamiliar for someone to have such... vibrant hair, and Ren himself was amazed at the color. He had tried dying his hair light blue once, but it didn't work out and he ended up having to stay at home blasting the hideous green thing that was his hair. Ren finally thought it was safe and stood up. He wasn't too far away, and he thought for sure he'd be noticed with his rather vibrant choice of clothing.

Ren walked over to the woman and looked over her form. Criminal record? Ren didn't remember that part being there. It must have been a format change. He had been here a very long time, and a lot of changes had happened, even if he wasn't exactly there to witness all of them. "You know, it's a little late to be signing up, don't you think?" Ren took the opportunity of a barren guildhall to make the best first impression he could, he didn't want to expose his true self immediately, it would reflect badly on the guild as a whole if he just was... well, himself.

Blair looked up. Her lilac hair shifted with her face as her sapphire colored eyes looked at the boy before her. Boy probably wasn't the most accurate word, he looked like he could be about Blairs age. "I know," She asked, her never ending smile now directed towards the gentleman before her. "I showed up just before closing last night, so i got the tattoo but never the paper work." 

Letting out a slight giggle, she brushed her hair back behind her ear, continuing the conversation as she tried not to look back at the paper work, not wanting to appear as rude for ignoring the man. "I've been looking for a guild for quite some time now, Lamia scale caught my eye more then the others." She spoke, a cheery tone lightening up her voice as she quickly looked back down at the forms. Only one thing left to do, sign the papers. 


"Time to make this official," she spoke, lifting up the pen, and watching as the ink fled from the quill and onto the page, 

"My name's Ren, welcome to the guild!" Ren grinned as he shook the lady's hand enthusiastically. She had a very lovely pair of blue gloves on. Was this woman rich? She certainly seemed like she had a lot of money. Ren had seemed to always befriend people that were much higher above the social ladder, then again he was pretty much at the very bottom. Ren hadn't really dressed up as fantastically as he normally did when he expected people to show up, but he was content with what he wore.

Ren watched the sheet disappear with wide eyes. Things certainly did change didn't they? Ren felt like an old man watching things that had changed. It made Ren laugh a bit when he thought about it. "Back when I enrolled, I was dumped into this huge labyrinth, and I had to find a way out. Floors kept falling out, and it was really dark..." Despite the strangely scary sounding description, he was smiling pretty softly, he found the memory very fond. He only wished he could remember altogether what happened, all he remembered was jumping across a pit and then it all went black. Ren shrugged that off, what mattered was the present, right?

"Well, Ren, it is probably a good thing they used to test the abilities of future members. It's  good thing they stopped though, I don't know how well I would have fared if I were subjected to the same entrance examination." Blair spoke, giving him a humbling smile as she let go of his hand, putting it to her side. A blue petal fell from the rose in her hair, not disturbing the smile upon her face. 

"That hasn't happened in quite some time." She spoke, "I guess fate is trying to tell me something." The smile, growing a bit in size, never faded for Blair. Constantly making sure she was happy, no matter how much stamina and energy it took. "I am delighted to make your acquaintance," Blair told Ren, reaching up with her left hand, the hand with a small, white feathered glove covering it, using it adjust the rose. 

"Care to give me a tour of the place?" Blair asked. "I mean, a veteran like your self must know this place like the back of his hand, right?"

"Me? A veteran? Well, I wouldn't say that..." Ren trailed off, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Despite the massive size of the guild itself, he had never gone anywhere past the main hall. He was kind of curious as to what was on the other layers. "Well uh... This is the main hall... And uh..." Ren stared up at the stairs which led to Zuo's office, and pointed. "That's Zuo- erm, the Guildmaster's office. He's not in super often, but he's like a ninja or something. Always popping out of nowhere." Ren explained, and then on a wall at the other end of the room, Ren pointed out the job board.

"That's the job board. It's pretty self explanatory. It's where you get jobs." Ren thought he was doing pretty well and directing basic things, even if he hadn't been anywhere but this hall in the massive structure of marble. "The place is made entirely out of marble, no windows or anything. But the chairs are oddly comfortable." Ren noted, before continuing. "Below our feet is some kind of labyrinth. Also a fighting arena, if I remember correctly." Ren recalled the many times he was involved in the initiation of new members.

"I actually don't think there is a single guild member who has seen what's up above."

Enola wondered through the corridor leading to the main guildhall. She was absolutely exhausted yet her expression – a content grin – didn’t show it. She’d made more progress toward her goal of cleaning the entire marble tower. It was the biggest cleaning challenge of her life, but she was certainly making progress; although, she wasn’t quite sure how she was ever going to get into Zuo’s office to clean it.

“Oh? What’s this?”

She heard chattering and peeked her head around the corner to see two persons: Ren Hengi, a young boy she’d seen running around the guild from time to time, and a woman dressed ever more regally than Enola herself. The asymmetry of the woman’s dress was almost enough to make Enola nauseous, but it was eloquent nonetheless. She was almost certain this woman was new to the guild – Enola would have definitely recognized her anywhere. A cliché lightbulb went off in her head when she recalled a man who worked the bar telling her about a new guild member. What was the name he mentioned… Bree... Blanca… Blair! Yes, that’s right, Blair!

Enola patted her maid uniform to ensure it was spotless before coming around the corner, with a cheery smile on her face. Her porcelain shoes clacked against the marble flooring, making her approach rather obvious.

She faced the two, with her arms at her side like an obedient servant. “Mr. Hengi, dear, you aren’t bothering our guest are you?”

To escape the chance of being rude, Enola turned her attention toward Blair before Ren could even respond and greeted their new companion, “Good evening, Ms. Blair. You are the woman who came knocking at our door last night, yes?” Enola held out her hand and chuckled, “I am Ms. Enola Gay. It’s a pleasure to welcome you to the guild.”

"that's not what I meant by a tour." She shaking her head. "I meant the other aspects of this place. You listed everything in this one room, and although there are quite a lot of things in this room, that only tells me that there are many more things to discover." the smile grew into a child's grin of excitement as she clapped her hands together. "Oh i'm just so excited! Lets go see what this place has to o-"

“Mr. Hengi, dear, you aren’t bothering our guest are you?”

Blair turned her head, the smile had faded for just a second or two as she gazed at the women before her. A typical housemaid’s uniform, very neat and pristine. It was an uncommon attire to say the least, not nearly as uncommon as Blair's of course but still uncommon. "You're the one who registered me yesterday!" She spoke, smile once again widened on her face form the enthusiasm. "I'm sorry for bursting in at closing last night," She spoke, face turning red from a bit of embarrassment as she scratched the back of her lilac colored head. "But it's a pleasure to meet you Ms. Gay."

With the embarrassment quickly faded, the women clapped her hands together once more. "Now, Ren, Enola, shall we take a tour?"

Ren turned around when Enola had approached. He had seen her around, he wasn't exactly sure if she was an actual member or if she was hired help. "Wh-What? No, I-" Ren was ignored as she continued to speak to Blair. It was weird how quickly he could be shoved behind in a conversation, maybe it had something to do with his height? He was shorter than basically everyone his age, and it seemed like he was only taller than children.

Ren himself was very curious as to what lied at the upper levels of the guildhall. He had never really been up there, he had no idea if he was even supposed to go up there. "Enola, you clean around, right? What's even up there?" Ren asked, rubbing his eye and yawning. He was getting tired, he didn't really have a lot of energy these days. He was always sleeping in. "Is it just empty space? Or is there a trophy room? Bedrooms? Bathrooms? I've been wondering why we never had any of those." Ren continued, tilting his head.

Kihia walked into the Main hall from the hallway that lead to the dormitories as well as some of the lower parts of the Guild Hall. For once, he wasn’t wearing his trenchcoat, he was instead wearing his normal attire, a grey sleeveless T-shirt coupled with grey slacks. The ice of his right arm was completely visible reflecting the light from the room subtly, he was holding within his right hand Icarus, resting it on his right shoulder. He stood there for a moment using his enhanced hearing to listen to the conversation as best he could. When he heard Ren’s confusion about the upper and lower layout of the Guild hall he sighed and started to walk forward. I guess it’s a good thing Ukan is asleep on my bed in my room… he would have made a mess out of this…

He walked up to Enola, Ren, and the newcomer he learned whose name was Blair and stood there for a moment, he then did a slight bow, “Welcome to Lamia Scale… I am Kihia Avoa… it is a pleasure to meet you…” He then went quiet for a moment, “And To clarify Ren’s explanations… there have been a number of members who have explored the upper levels… Up there is the Library… Hall of Hero’s… as well as the Guilds Training hall… to get on the path there you take the hallway on the left side of the Main hall… as for the other… it leads to the dormitories as well as a few other rooms…”

Enola chuckled at Blair’s attempt to handle her embarrassment but perked her ears when she heard “Ms.” In the sentence. Finally, someone else with class.

Before the maid could respond to Ren, none other than the Ace of Courage walked in – Kihia Avoa. It wasn’t difficult to notice him: he had bright white hair and seemed to carry with him that odd polearm wherever he went. When he reached the trio, he greeted Ren and explained the upstairs area. The thing that caught her attention, though, was “training room.” Enola desperately tried to hide her grimace, recalling the vicious snow storm she'd suffered in that dreaded room. Ever since then, she’s refused to put ice cubes into her drinks…

Enola reached into her uniform’s pocket and pulled out her white cloth to wipe the small bead of sweat trickling down her forehead. She placed it back into her pocket and returned her gaze to Ren and Blair “As Mr. Avoa explained, there are dormitories for those who need a place to sleep as well as a few other rooms.“ “Few” was a bit of an understatement. There was a plethora of rooms, some stranger than others. After months of cleaning, Enola was beginning to think she was the only person to explore some of these rooms in quite some time; in fact, the last room she’d cleaned was almost completely covered in dust and cobwebs.

Enola waved her hand toward one of the hallways, “Ms. Blair, if you’d like, we’ll take you on your tour, starting with the upstairs.” Her gaze darkened and her tone turned serious as she added, “So long as your shoes are clean that is…” Then, her facial expression went back to cheery as if she had turned a switch in her head.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both!" Blair spoke with excitement, a bit over the top as so was her personality. It was then Ms. Enola offered to show them a tour, or maybe it was just Blair... Either way, "I would Love a tour!" She spoke, clapping her hands together as her eyes began to sparkle with glee. "I had so many tours of the blue Pegasus guild, I would love to see this one. It is even more exciting now sense I actually belong here." Letting out a sigh of relief, Blair then looked down and looked at the bottom of her shoes.

"All clean," She cheered, clasping her hands together behind her back as she smiled with glee covering her face, her lilac hair oddly staying in place. "Now, shall we?" She asked, excited about what was in store on this tour.

Ren was actually pretty excited himself. It kind of made him feel bad when Kihia said everyone had already seen several parts of the guild. Ren really never made an effort to do much. "I'm pretty excited too! It's like the introduction I never had!" He grinned, and went to check the bottom of his shoes. They were clean, naturally. He couldn't just ruin a perfectly good pair of shoes tracking mud and dirt everywhere, shoes aren't cheap. "My shoes are good to go!" Ren smiled, giving a thumbs up. "Ah, now I'm getting excited about it! Let's go!" Ren cheered and turned on his heel, his bracelets clinking together as he moved.

Ren wondered what it would have been like for him if he had joined the guild at a later time. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of Zuo at all, was he just not around right now? Ren had always had the thought that the old Guildmaster was always right under his feet, quite literally. But he supposed even the Guildmaster needed a vacation once and a while. "Hey Kihia, have you heard from the Guildmaster at all? Is he on vacation or something?" Ren looked over at Kihia with a confused look on his face. Did he miss something?

Kihia didn’t look at the bottom of his shoes, for he knew they were clean after being inside all day. He watched the group and gently smiled, a small detour in everyday activities wasn’t a bad idea it seemed. His attention was then drawn to Ren who had asked about the Master’s recent activities. “He has been busy as of Late Ren, he has various tasks that even I cannot help him with, or that he will let me know about…” Kihia went quiet for a moment before he spoke up again, “Who knows… We may get a visit from the Master the moment we least expect it…” Kihia then walked towards the hallway that led to the staircases he then turned around, “Well what are we waiting for?”

Enola took the staircase up into a fairly small hallway. There were large doors, each with a plaque associated with it. One read “Hall of Heroes” while another read “Guild Training Hall” and the third read “Zuo’s Grand Library.” Enola had been to the guild training hall already, though she hadn’t stepped foot in either the Hall of Heroes or the library, which seemed the most eerie of the three to her.

The maid asked, "So, Ms. Blair, which room would you like to explore first?” Enola didn’t really know much about any of the rooms and assumed Ren didn’t either, likely leaving most of the commentary to Kihia. On that note, Enola wondered what kind of mysteries Kihia knew about the whole place, or at least about Zuo Cii, a man who remained the true mystery to Enola despite his role as guild master.

Blair lit up with excitement as everyone around her wanted to join in on the tour. "Yay," She spoke, clapping her hands and turning towards Enola. Her face then went blank when asked what room she wanted to go to. "I... I don't know my choices," She spoke, scratching the back of her head. "What about you guys?" She inquired, turning towards them, her blank canvas of a face starting to fill up with color as she smiled once more.

Ren shrugged and looked around at the entrances around him. "W-Well, uh..." Ren trailed off, looking at the doorways of multiple possibilities. He had never been through here before, he felt like a newcomer all over again. It was so strange to think he had been here for so long and he had never even once went up beyond the main hall. Ren supposed it was never relevant enough. "KIHIA! Do you know where we should go?" Ren thought it was fitting to ask someone who knew more about the guild than he did.